Frangible Slugs – A Safer Load For USPSA

Shotgun?
STORY AND PHOTOS BY PATRICK KELLEY,
A-14401

I
n front of you stand three Pepper
poppers and three paper targets.
You’ve stagger-loaded your shot-
gun shot/slug/shot/slug so you can
sweep across the array without having
to back up. You’re all keyed up, ready
for a screaming start. You rack the bolt
and top off the magazine as you make
ready.
The range officer yells “Stand by!”
and you zero in on that first target. As
the adrenaline dump starts, a question
pops into your head. “Did I top off
with shot, or with a slug?” Suddenly New from International Cartridge Company (a division of Sinterfire), this
that little voice in your head shouts; frangible shotgun slug offers great potential. With it, shooters can engage
“Hey, those poppers are close! If I slam steel plates within FEET, and do so safely. The slug itself is a hollow cup
one with a slug, I could get hurt!” with no rifling flutes. It weighs 325 grains, and flies at 1400+ fps.
BEEP!
creating a serious wound – like that tridge Corporation (ICC). Now, in-
The above scenario is all too real. which happened to Kelly Beale at last stead of dumping your ammo into the
I’ve seen it happen, and I’ve been there year’s MGM 3-Gun Games, or to berm and re-loading, you can risk a few
when slugs hit steel at close range. USPSA Junior Coordinator Bill shots to get back in sync. You can sal-
Even at longer ranges, I’ve seen slug Sahlberg a few years prior. Both men vage an otherwise hopeless run – with-
fragments injure competitors and by- were able to drive themselves to the out risking your skin.
standers. Lead slugs are an important hospital, but had their fragments im-
pacted elsewhere (into the neck, into ICC offers an extensive line of lead-
part of 3-gun competition and are
the inner thigh, into the thoracic cav- free frangible pistol and rifle ammuni-
quite safe when handled correctly, but
ity) those wounds could have been very tion, but it’s their frangible shotgun
when mistakes happen, lead slug frag-
serious indeed. slug that really sets them apart. After
ments can hurt you. Everyone at
reading about Kelly Beale’s injury in
USPSA matches wears eye protection,
In the above scenario with standard Front Sight, Keith Porco (member of
but the fragments coming from a shot-
ammunition, anyone standing on the the International Cartridge shooting
gun slug are much larger than typical
range would be in jeopardy. But today team) sent Front Sight a sample lot of
lead splatter from handgun rounds.
we’re using lead-free frangible shotgun 12 gauge slugs and a handful of 00
Some of those fragments are large
slugs developed by International Car- buckshot for testing. I tested both for
enough to punch deep into the flesh,
accuracy and fragmentation, with the
Dust to dust. results appearing below.
At left appear Both loads were fired through a 22-
two of ICC’s inch Browning Auto 5 with rifle sights
frangible buck- and the new Winchester SX2 equipped
shot pellets. with a 22-inch tube and rifle sights.
One new, one The barrels were choked Skeet #2
struck with a (.002” tighter than improved cylinder)
ball-peen ham- and cylinder bore respectively. Both
mer. Note the guns shoot very well with almost any
total abence of slug and have demonstrated excellent
large frag- reliability over time. The ammunition
ments. from ICC did little to upset those char-
acteristics.

30 FRONT SIGHT • May/June 2002

First, The Slug:
Weighing in at 325 grains and fly-
ing over the chrono screens at 1400
fps, the ICC slug shot plenty flat to 100
yards with good accuracy up to 50
yards. The load (still a prototype) uses
Fiocchi hulls and a conventional-look-
ing shot wad with two stacked wad
cards under the slug. The slug itself is
hollow based and beveled on both
ends, but lacks the pronounced exter-
nal rifling of a normal slug. It is com-
posed of copper colored material (sin-
tered copper with a binding agent) NASTY Customer. This lead frag
with a gray finish. (Porco later ex- lodged itself in the cardboard box
plained this is natural oxidization.) Kelley wrapped around his steel tar-
During testing in less than ideal get. Others slashed through and
conditions (winter in eastern Washing- sailed off into space.
ton) groups ran 2.5 inches at 25 yards, ably the first shot) opened the group to holding 12 copper-colored pellets. Ad-
3.5 inches at 50 yards, 7 to 8 inches at 6 inches. ditionally, a blue plastic buffer was
75 yards and 12 inches at 100 yards. used to reduce pellet deformation.
Up to 50 yards the frangibles shot ac- Strangely the pellets themselves were
curately enough, but beyond that Next, The Buckshot:
The buckshot loads contained a not completely round. Measuring
things got iffy. Just to make sure I was- .310” in diameter they have a flat band
n’t way off my game, I shot five rounds dozen 30-grain pellets with a total
weight of 360 grains and a tested ve- around the midsection that is .070”
of Winchester SuperX 1-ounce slugs at wide. One might think this would not
100 yards at the same sitting — and put locity of 1270 fps. Again a Fiocchi hull
was employed, although with a less- be good for aerodynamics but patterns
four into 3 inches. A fifth round (prob- were acceptable to around 20 yards.
than-conventional cushionless wad

Dawson Precision

May/June 2002 • FRONT SIGHT 31


Eloquent demo. Look at the damage caused by the lead slug as com-
pared to the ICC frangible slug. It’s difficult to find any penetrations at all
caused by the ICC frangible.
On the range, this buckshot pat-
terned acceptably well, holding pat-
terns as tight (but not as consistent) as
Federal Classic and Winchester Su-
perX. I would have liked to have some
more buck on hand to play with choke
constrictions, but the best patterns are
shown in the photos. When I men-
tioned the inconsistent patterning to
Simple but effective. Pat Kelley
wrapped a cardboard box around a
steel flash target to test fragmenta-
tion characteristics of the different
slugs.
32
Mr. Porco, he advised me that this lot
was subjected to water immersion test-
ing and some of the waterproofing
agent had contaminated the buffer ma-
terial. Future lots will not use the same
agent.
Performance On Steel:
Okay, we know the ICC loads per-
form like “normal” ammo on paper,
how do they work on steel?
They work very well indeed. For
testing I used a flash target as my steel
impact plate. This was covered on five
sides with a 12-inch square cardboard
box with the back open to the target
(see photo). Shooting through the box
onto the steel target, I expected to see
a single hole for the initial penetration,
with smaller holes for frags radiating
out from there.
Starting at the 40-yard mark and
working downrange, I placed lead and
frangible slugs on the SOF steel
through the face of the cardboard box,
checking every shot for any sign of
fragments returning uprange. None
from either slug were found.
While tests for returning fragments
came up no, tests for radial side frag-
ments showed a resounding YES! Lead
slug fragments shredded the side pan-
els, sending frags blasting through the
cardboard, but the frangible slugs of-
fered only a visible dusting. At the 11-
yard mark I quit shooting the lead
slugs. This was prudent, as rather large
fragments were slicing through the side
panels.
I continued moving closer, blasting
away with frangibles at 8 yards, then 5
yards, until I finally blasted the test box
from within 8 feet of the steel target.
Only then did the smallest amount of
dust fragments pop through the single
layer of cardboard
As you can see by the cardboard
side panels in the photos, the standard
lead slugs completely penetrate and
leave for parts unknown with pieces
large enough to cause serious injury. In
contrast, the frangible slugs’ fragments
are nearly harmless.
While the real beauty of this am-
munition lies in close quarters combat
training, we as competitors could ben-
efit from the safety aspects and ade-
quate performance. In our world with
rules and range officers, we can en-
force good judgment and safety prac-
tices and live with lead shotgun projec-
tiles. However, if this ammo was com-
petitively priced and readily available,
new rules and some fun new scenarios
could be around the corner.
Where Do I Get Them?
International Cartridge’s frangible
slugs are just now hitting the market.
Porco says they will be available on a
broad basis starting around mid-year.
For now, you can order them direct
through International Cartridge Corp.
at RR 1, Box 211 A, Reynoldsville PA
15851 (814) 938-6820.
The 12-gauge slugs carry a sug-
gested retail price of $4 per five
rounds, or $159.93 for a 200 round
case. That’s close to the suggested re-
tail prices of lead slugs, but is a bit
above the typical “street price.” If the
street price of these slugs comes in
close to lead slugs, I’d choose them
over lead for any slug target under 50
yards.
FRONT SIGHT • May/June 2002